Ariel As A Helper In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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Ariel is a servant because he has to be, Puck is a helper because he wants to be. Ariel gets freedom as a gift in the end for his great services, while Puck does not need freedom because he is free and serves Oberon for his own pleasure (and to have the comfort of belonging somewhere). Ariel is a native ruled by the conqueror and Puck is a conqueror himself conquering Nature and natives wherever he goes. In other words, Puck’s magic is natural while Prospero’s is learned from books, and because of that, Ariel’s magic has a learned aspect as well (Hibbard 82). Ariel is called to be a servant, Puck is called to be gentle. The relationship of fairy and master is different in the two plays, which can be seen through the use of you and thou: Puck can say thou (except when he is…show more content…
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck is to be the same as he was before. He does not change, nor do his circumstances. That is why he can be a narrator, because he can be an outsider who is not changed by the happenings. Ariel’s circumstances change totally. With the freedom he gets, the main purpose of his life has gone away. He is a character, and one cannot tell what happens to the characters after the play. When lovers finally get married, for example, one does not examine whether they live ‘happily ever after’, but simply assumes it. One does not know how Ariel can get on with freedom and how he can make his living alone. But one knows that after the wedding, Puck will remain the same. That is why Puck’s future cannot be doubted though Ariel’s can. The latter has no purpose to exist after the end of the play. If Ariel is the character of the magician, then he cannot exist, only on stage. Characters do not exist after the play ends. And if Ariel does not have a purpose after the end of the play then he does not exist anymore either. That is another way to prove that Ariel is the character itself while Puck is only an aspect of his
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